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Recycled reels -- Dhamaal

Dhamaal is one of those movies you so want to hate, right from the minute you hear of the plot of the big W – stolen from It’s a mad mad mad mad world with a formulaic line-up of Hindi cinema’s funny men and plenty of recycled PJs (phaltu jokes) and sequences lifted straight out of Road Trip and Rat Race. Yet, somehow, it all strangely works – at least in the first half of the film. And that’s a good enough reason to watch the film. Ninety minutes of entertainment.

Put off completely by Adnan’s Sami’s dated ‘slipping-on-a-banana-peel’ score – a set of stock comic instrumental cues from the low budget comedies of the 1970s, I braced myself for a torturous two and a half hours. Instead, I found myself laughing at the stupidest of jokes, the lamest and the oldest of them, in spite of the silly score and the stereotyped characterisation of four jobless losers unable to afford rent.

That’s what good actors can do. Arshad, Riteish, Javed, Aashish, Sanjay Dutt, Asrani, Tikku Talsania have probably done these roles many times before but with brilliant comic timing and delivery, they make the stalest of jokes refreshing.

There’s this bit in the early portions when a dying criminal (a hilarious Prem Chopra) kicks the bucket, quite literally. That’s the point you completely surrender to the madness, put your brain on pause mode and decide to smile, forgiving the unapologetic, irreverent lack of originality. The means justify the ends. Entertainment. The second half tumbles downhill as the friends split up providing you a few laughs along the way, nevertheless. But by then, your brain’s gone numb to the insanity and you just decide to recover cost of tickets by way of jokes that come your way. Dhamaal’s a mast-watch, goes perfectly well with popcorn and cheese balls.

Dhamaal Genre Comedy

Director Indra Kumar

Cast Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh, Javed Jaffery, Sanjay Dutt

Storyline Four friends and a cop in a Rat Race to find money buried under the big W.